Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) is defined, for example, in IEEE 802.1ag “IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks Amendment 5: Connectivity Fault Management.” CFM defines protocols and practices for Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) for paths through 802.1 bridges and local area networks (LANs). Disadvantageously, IEEE 802.1ag does not describe any procedure to follow in case a single Maintenance End Point (MEP) associated with ‘n’ MEP (′n′ is an integer or some other identifier of the MEP) in the same Maintenance Association (MA) reports a fault. Consequently, conventional systems suffer from a “by default” worst case behavior in which all MEP's start reporting faults simultaneously thereby causing unwanted conditions or alarm reporting actions.